Lazio hold German Champions

Dag Jenkins
Jul 17, 2023
2 min read

Updated: Jul 26

Season 2007-08

Pre Season Friendly

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Franz Fekete Stadion, Kapfenberg

Lazio Stuttgart 1-1

Despite inferior fitness levels Lazio play out positive friendly against Bundesliga winners

This was Lazio's third pre-season friendly and first competitive one. They had so far beaten SV Thal 4-0 and Kapfenberg 2-0. The Biancocelesti had already suffered their first injury as defender Sebastiano Siviglia had hurt his knee and would be out for about three months.

Stuttgart were German champions, so, a prestigious friendly today between two top European sides.

The match

There were about 2,000 spectators in the small Kapfenberg ground.

Lazio had been training in Austria for 10 days and the Germans for longer.

Lazio were missing injured Siviglia and Mourad Meghni while Stuttgart were without Matthieu Delpierre, Sami Khedira, Thomas Hitzlsperger, Pável Pardo, Ciprian Marica and Yildiray Basturk.

Lazio were not as fit, but started strongly. In the 8th minute they took the lead. Lionel Scaloni was the assist man and Stefano Mauri the scorer as he wrong footed the keeper with a low shot with the inside of his foot.

Lazio continued to play well with fast and precise passes and continuous movements. Their lack of training however started to show after about twenty minutes and they slowed down.

In the 26th minute the Germans equalised with Swede Alexander Farnerud. The Bundesliga side were then on top but Lazio held their own and reached halftime level. Lazio 1 Stuttgart 1.

For the second half "Die Schwaben" replaced Fernando Meira with Pischorn.

In the 54th minute Lazio replaced the whole team! All eleven players went off and fresh ones came on.

The Germans kept more or less the same block on the field and "only" made three more substitutions; Mandjeck for Gledson and Arthur Boka for Ludovic Magnin in the 60th minute and Manuel Fisher for Mario Gomez in the 68th.

The Germans were only a week away from their first competitive game and were trying out their main line-up currently available.

In the second half the Germans attacked more and controlled the game but reserve keeper Tommaso Berni was not overly busy. Lazio were well organised and defended efficiently.

The game ended in a 1-1 draw. A useful friendly for both sides against quality opposition. A positive draw for Lazio against German champions who had predictably shown to be a lot fitter than the Romans.

Lazio's summer friendlies would continue with games against West Ham United, Southampton, Arsenal (Amsterdam Cup), Atletico Madrid (Amsterdam Cup) and Panathinaikos plus some minor clubs.

Who played for Lazio

Ballotta (54' Berni), Scaloni (54' De Silvestri), Cribari (54' Belleri), Stendardo (54' Diakité), Zauri (54' Kolarov), Behrami (54' Mudingayi), Ledesma (54' Baronio), Mutarelli (54' Firmani), Mauri (54' Manfredini), Pandev (54' Inzaghi), Rocchi (54' Del Nero)